The effect of PACS on patient radiation doses for examination of the lateral lumbar spine

The aim of the study described in this paper was to identify and measure any changes in radiation dose attributable to the implementation of the hospital wide Hammersmith PACS system. The authors believe this study to be a comprehensive study of changes in patient dose for the examination of the lateral lumbar spine associated with the introduction of PACS: the study has fully monitored the many factors which affect these patient doses. Some very optimistic claims of large dose reductions with the introduction PACS at other hospitals have been based upon minimal reported evidence, or comparisons have been made with very old high dose systems with film/screen sensitivities as low as 100. In this study the patient doses with the PACS system have been compared with those measured when a conventional film/screen system with a sensitivity of 300 was used.